


footsteps on our soul

by silwings



Category: Roswell New Mexico (TV 2019)
Genre: Baby Guerin, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2020-07-29 20:28:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20088292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silwings/pseuds/silwings
Summary: One shots in the life of Michael and Alex as parents.Alex was big enough to admit he was jealous of the way Michael could always settle their baby girl. In the throes of her temperature onsetting at 3am Michael had rocked her to sleep like magic. He’d been so at ease with her while Alex’s day felt like a losing battle against an infant.





	1. Baby Girl

**Author's Note:**

> I was majorly inspired by majorstallmadge's "me? I will fall in love with you every single day" and the adorable family dynamic if you haven't read it yet you need to asap
> 
> I was babysitting a sick baby girl and this happened. I have more snapshots planned, but give me your suggestions!

“Come on, sweetheart.”

Alex grits his teeth as his prosthetic digs in, pain shooting up into his hip as he heaves himself off the floor, shifts his weight, and starts to gently bounce. The crying only intensifies. Alex isn’t sure if it can even still be considered crying anymore. It’s more of a wail really.

“I know baby, I know.” Alex shushes as he continues to bounce. His baby girl is red faced as fat tears streak down her face and Alex has never felt more helpless. The fever had set in late last night and while Kyle had assured him everything was fine, _‘just your average ear infection’_, Alex hadn’t been able to settle her since. The latest dose of antibiotics and baby Tylenol hadn't helped any.

“AB-BA! DA-DA!”

“I know bubba, I know. I want Abba too.” Alex really did. There was nothing he wanted more than for Michael to be home right now. Alex was big enough to admit he was jealous of the way Michael could always settle their baby girl. In the throes of her temperature onsetting at 3am Michael had rocked her to sleep like magic. He’d been so at ease with her while Alex’s day felt like a losing battle against an infant. He knew he sounded crazy, but he wanted Michael. He’d been resisting the urge to call him all day. To ask Michael to come home early. Instead Alex had responded to Michael’s texts asking for updates vaguely with _‘She’s still a little fussy’_ and _‘She took a while to go down, but she’s asleep now’. _He didn’t mean to keep Michael in the dark, but it had taken so much to convince him to leave this morning Alex couldn’t risk it.

_“Come on Guerin, we can’t both stay home every time she gets sick for the next eighteen years”_

_Michael looked like he was going to argue more but sighed as he locked eyes with Alex._

_“Please.” Alex said, moving into Michael’s arms. “Let me do this, you can’t go around cancelling things like today.”_

_Michael scuffed and murmured something vaguely like _‘wanna bet’_ against Alex’s hair._

Eventually Michael had reluctantly left. A pout etched on his features and a promise to be home early. Alex had laughed and shooed him out the door, standing on the porch as Michael left if only to make sure he didn’t turn around at the end of the drive. Alex had managed the day pretty well all things considered. A sick baby is never a happy baby, but they’d made it though most of the day relatively unscathed. They’d played and tried to walk, albeit unsuccessfully, in the company of themselves and Isobel during her mid-day appearance until it was time for her afternoon nap. However, unlike the first nap of the day where his little baby girl had slept like the dead, she’d woken up screaming only thirty minutes into her afternoon nap and refused to go back down.

_That had been hours ago. _Alex was ready to call in reinforcements when the front door opened.

“Is, is that you? Thank goodness, how did you know?”

“Know what?” A voice that was definitely _not_ Isobel’s responded. Alex hadn’t heard the distinctive rumble of a truck in the driveway. He must be dreaming, Alex decided. ‘_Maybe the baby and I fell asleep.’ _It was only when a very distinctive cowboy rounded the corner into the living room that Alex decided most definitely was not dreaming. Because Michael only ever looked this good in person. Curls slightly disheveled underneath his Stetson, Wrangler jeans tight on his butt and thighs and held up by his rodeo belt buckle, the leather strap of his bag slug over one shoulder.

“Um…I…” Alex can’t seem to form a sentence. Because he wanted Michael here, but he shouldn’t be home yet. Michael just smiles and makes his way closer towards him.

“How’s my little princess doing?”

“Fussy and wanting her Abba.”

“Oh?” Michael smiles as he encompasses Alex and the baby in his arms, resting his head atop Alex’s. “And how’s Dada doing?”

“Tired.”

Michael hummed quietly against his head.

“How are you home already?”

“I told the class I’d give everybody two bonus points on their exam if they let me get home early to my sick baby girl.”

“Michael you can’t bribe them.”

“It wasn’t a bribe! It was _incentive_.”

“Weren’t you holding additional office hours today for students needing help with their Capstone projects?”

Michael just shrugged, “I’ll reschedule.”

_“Dr. Guerin.”_

“What?! I needed to see my princess and her Dada.”

“Well, your princess over here has decided she likes her Abba better than her Dada.”

“That’s not true.” Michael smirks, “I’m just closer in body temperature. I do run hot you know?”

It was Alex’s turn to hum quietly in agreement. If he was being honest, he could fall asleep standing right here. Michael must be able to tell too because he’s softly shooed away towards their bedroom and a warm shower. Eventually Alex wanders back out from their bedroom, still rubbing a towel against his damp hair, and is only marginally surprised at what he finds. Michael is propped up on the couch, reading over a physics exam in one hand while his other gently rests on their daughter’s back who’s snuggled chest to chest with him.

She’s asleep.

Because she has her Abba, and they are two peas from the same pod.


	2. Dr. Guerin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dr. Guerin is never late.
> 
> Two minutes.
> 
> With two minutes to spare Dr. Guerin appears in class like a tornado. He’s slightly disheveled, which isn’t unusual, and slightly aggravated, which is. He doesn’t say anything as he hooks up his laptop and brings an image up on the projector.  
It’s a baby.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, honestly it’s even written since I uploaded the first chapter but I’m not really happy with it still.
> 
> Hopefully its okay and the next will be better.
> 
> As always, love to hear your thoughts.

Dr. Guerin is never late.

Punctual is too strait-laced a word to describe him. Tess likes to think of it more as a swagger. Calm, casual and distinctively at ease and in charge whenever he’s wandering around campus, lecturing, or holding office hours. He’s invested in his students success and his research, but never seems to take anything too seriously.

That’s Dr. Guerin.

But today he’s late. Ten minutes so.

The rest of her classmates, and even herself Tess grudgingly admits, are counting down the remaining five minutes of the university’s class cancellation policy. It would mean an extra day to study for the exam they’ve suppose to have already started. Even Dr. Guerin’s TA looks confused, standing at the front of the class with no exams and no clue where Dr. Guerin is.

_Two minutes._

With two minutes to spare Dr. Guerin appears in class like a tornado. He’s slightly disheveled, which isn’t unusual, and slightly aggravated, which is. He doesn’t say anything as he hooks up his laptop and brings an image up on the projector.

_It’s a baby._

‘She’s cute.’ Tess thinks. Her curly blond hair was untamed underneath her pink hair bow and she had beautiful blue eyes.

“This is my baby girl.”

Tess will admit she’s pretty shocked. Dr. Guerin’s always been friendly and conversational but never deeply personal. She’s known him for nearly two years, ever since she’d taken his Introduction to Astrophysics course in the fall of her freshman year, and knew next to nothing about his life outside the university despite the hours she’s spent in his office. She knew he commuted to UNM’s campus three times a week from Roswell. She knew he has two siblings he’s close to. She knew he was married, but didn’t wear a ring. She definitely didn’t know he had a kid.

“She’s currently at home with a 103.3 degree fever.” Dr Guerin says and he starts passing out exams from inside his bag. “So, I’m going to give everyone two bonus points on their exam if you refrain from asking stupid questions and let me get home. Deal?”

Dr. Guerin sweeps the room with his eyes, scanning for any dissenters.

“Good. Get to work, you have seventy five minutes.”

No one takes the full seventy five minutes. The exam is deceptively shorter than usual and Tess has the distinct feeling that Dr. Guerin ripped off the last page. The staple holding her exam together is flimsy and bent outwards. It was also missing the essay question which has been haunting the class study group for days.

The face of Dr. Guerin’s adorable baby girl is still on the projector during the exam. As motivation or simply because Dr. Guerin forgot to turn it off in his haste Tess wasn’t sure. But the cute face of Baby Guerin stared at them, seemingly judging them for taking her dad away and telling them to hurry up.

It’s the fastest Tess has ever finished an exam in her entire college career. She doesn’t even bother to double check her answers. She just can’t, Dr. Guerin’s baby just seems to stare at her and Tess swears chills ran down her spine. Silently, she heads up to the front of the classroom where Dr. Guerin is bent over his phone and passes him her exam.

“Thanks Tess,” he says as he checks off her name and adds her exam to the stack.

“Your baby’s super cute, what’s her name?” Dr. Guerin starts to say something but he’s immediately cut off by the shrill sound of his phone vibrating against the desk. A picture of a pretty blonde and the name ‘Isobel’ lights up the screen.

“Sorry I’ve got to get this,” he says, already half way out of his seat and headed for the door. “Hey Is, what’s up?”

_‘That must be his wife.’_ Tess thinks. She wasn’t planning on eavesdropping, she really wasn’t, but Tess couldn’t help it that Dr. Guerin took his call into the hallway just as she was leaving.

“Trust me I know. Alex forced me to come in today.” Dr. Guerin is pacing with the same agitated energy he had when he’d arrived. “Something about not bailing on responsibilities every time our princess got sick––”

_‘Okay, so maybe not his wife.’_


	3. Dr. Guerin's TA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Wait, you have kids?” Somehow the idea of Dr. Guerin being a dad was far more surprising than the fact the he had a husband.  
Dr. Guerin grinned.  
“I’m about too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Midterms have consumed my life and thesis research in never ending.
> 
> This chapter isn't great, but something is bettie than nothing.

Jesse was grateful that Dr. Guerin was his thesis advisor.

Lucky.

And he needed to remind himself of that fact, because right now it didn’t feel like it. At 2:58pm he’d wandered down the hall from the graduate student offices, which weren’t really offices, but rather cubicles and cubicles still felt like an overstatement, to Dr. Guerin’s much larger office for their weekly 3pm meeting. It was at the end of the hallway with two sets of windows, a half set which looked out into the hall, blinds drawn shut, and another set inside which provided a view of outside. Great sunlight unlike the harsh lights of Jesse’s cube.

He’d expected to find Dr. Guerin sitting behind his desk, absorbed in whatever project spanned his dual monitors like usual. Instead, Dr. Guerin was standing behind his desk, rummaging through his drawers looking more disheveled than usual.

Jesse gave a slight knock on the open doorframe as he stepped in. Dr. Guerin looked up, surprised.

“Oh! Jesse, what’s up man?”

“Umm, our weekly meeting? What were your thoughts on my last round of edits?”

“I forgot to email you,” Dr. Guerin started. “We need to re–”

“Michael are you ready to go? Our appointment’s in–oh, hello.”

A bombshell of a blonde said as she swept into the office. A _pregnant_ bombshell.

“Is, this is one of my grad students, Jesse. Jesse this is my sister Isobel.”

Now introduced, Jesse realized that the woman in front of him was the same woman scattered throughout the photographs in Dr. Guerin’s office. The most prominent picture was proudly displayed next to his computers with her in a coral gown, Dr. Guerin, and another dark haired man at what looked like a high school prom.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Jesse stood to shake her hand.

Isobel took it lightly, shaking his hand before turning her attention back to Dr. Guerin with a stern look.

“Michael, are you ready? We need to go.” Isobel turned on her heel and stalked out of the office, leaving no room for Dr. Guerin to argue.

“Right! Sorry Jesse for the confusion, you know, sisters. Anyways, send me some times that work for you later in the week and we’ll reschedule.”

Then Dr. Guerin was gone.

He hadn’t even bothered to lock his office door.

Days later, when Jesse walks into Dr. Guerin’s office for their rescheduled meeting, Dr. Guerin’s distracted on his phone but waves Jesse in anyways.

“I know babe I’m upset about not getting the house too.” Dr. Guerin sounded apologetic despite the cheshire grin he was sporting. He was twirling something between his fingers, a key maybe.

He paused to listen to whoever was on the other end.

“Look, I’ll go house hunting with Is and her realtor friend while you’re out of town next week okay? Report back any potentials.”

Another pause.

“Alright, I’ve got to go I’ve got a student in my office.”

Pause.

“Love you too. I’ll see you at home.”

Dr. Guerin hangs up.

“Sorry about all the craziness Jesse.”

“Not a problem.” Jesse says, because even if he was frustrated he wasn’t about to vocalize that to Dr. Guerin.

They got down to business quickly, Dr. Guerin rarely shared his personal life despite his friendly nature and Jesse didn’t expect him to elaborate on the bits of his phone call he overheard. More than hour later they’d hack through the first half of Jesse’s latest analysis. Dr. Guerin was brilliant and never one to shy away from pushing Jesse with new edits, but today Dr. Guerin had seemly gone off on a tangent. Jesse wasn’t sure how much he was keeping up with or how much work he’d manage to complete before their next meeting.

“Alright, that’s probably enough work to keep you busy for the semester.” Dr. Guerin laughed as he handed his red ink filled version of Jesse’s paper back to him.

“Huh, yeah. Do you want this all by next week?”

Jesse tried to keep his hesitation out of his voice. Between his TAing schedule, second year required coursework, and dissertation research he’d been stretched pretty thin lately. Finishing all of Dr. Guerin’s newest edits would be impossible by next week unless he forewent sleep altogether.

“Nah.” Dr. Guerin shook his head. “I’ll be out all of next week. My husband is going to be out of town and I’m surprising him with his dream house pre-baby so I’ve got some renovations to do. I’ll send you an email with instructions about class while I’m gone. I’ll probably just have you collect their homework and then cancel class later in the week. We can meet to discuss your progress on these edits when I get back, say in two weeks. Usual time.

“Wait, you have _kids_?” Somehow the idea of Dr. Guerin being a dad was far more surprising than the fact the he had a husband.

Dr. Guerin grinned.

“I’m about too.”

“Congratulations!” Jesse said as he stood to leave. He wasn’t sure what else he should say. “I’ll get right on these edits and let you know if I have any problems.”

As Jesse walked out of Dr. Guerin’s office he realized he’d learned more about his advisor in thirty seconds than he had in two years. Back at his Cube Jesse grabbed his Rubrik’s cube to fiddle with and swiveled in his chair to face Chelsea and Matt, two of his fellow graduate students sitting in their nearby Cubes.

“Did you know Dr. Guerin is expecting a baby?”

“Hmm,” Chelsea made a noncommittal sounds as she looked up from her computer. “I saw his wife in the hall the other day, she looked pretty far along.”

“Not his wife–”

“That’s his sister–”

Matt and Jesse cut each other off.

“Wait, how did you know that was his sister?”

“I didn’t, I just knew it wasn’t his wife.”

“How?”

“Dr. Guerin’s gay.” Matt shrugged.

“Wait, what?” Chelsea asked.

“How do you know that? I just found out five minutes ago.”

“Dude, he’s got his wedding picture next to that cheesy prom picture on his desk.” Matt said. “He’s not hiding him, he probably just doesn’t feel like spilling his personal life to a bunch of twenty-something sleep deprived grad students.”

“Really?”

“He’s literally your advisor Jess, how have you never noticed?”

Jesse shrugged. To be honest, he’d always been more enamored by the idea that the _Michael Guerin, PhD_ was his dissertation advisor to

“I’ve talked to him about it before. He’s some sort of programming consultant.”

“Really?” Chelsea’s interest peaked. She was getting a minor in Comp Sci and Engineering, which was unusual for a PhD student, but she’d been determined.

“Yeah, I was having trouble with my Python code a few weeks ago and since Dr. Guerin’s the resident coding genius I asked him. Turns out it’s his husband is the coding God.”

_Coding God of a husband._ Guess Jesse really did learn something new in grad school everyday.


End file.
